“Plaster”
by David Szalay
from the December 9, 2024 issue of The New Yorker

This week we get a story from David Szalay, an author I have heard so much about but have never read. He’s been on many up-and-coming-writer lists, and his 2016 collection of linked stories, All That Man Is, won the Gordon Burn Prize and was on the Booker Prize shortlist.

Here is how “Plaster” begins:

There’s some sort of holdup. Every day, they expect to fly out, and every day they are told it will be “another twenty-four hours.” They’re staying in a hotel with swimming pool.

It’s not really hot enough for swimming. It’s not quite pool weather. It’s, like, seventy-five or something. Still, they spend most of the day poolside — there isn’t anything else to do.

I’m posting this late because it’s been a very busy month so far, but I hope you’re all having a great final month of 2024. And I hope you’ll share any thoughts you have on this story below.

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